Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ:ULTA) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-four analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twelve have given a hold recommendation and eleven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $460.30.

ULTA has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $460.00 to $475.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $450.00 to $457.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $500.00 to $538.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Ulta Beauty from $505.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th.

Institutional Trading of Ulta Beauty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 180,713.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,238,569 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $481,952,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,884 shares during the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter valued at approximately $359,480,000. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 3,246.2% in the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 346,262 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $134,737,000 after acquiring an additional 335,914 shares during the last quarter. Atreides Management LP bought a new position in Ulta Beauty in the third quarter valued at approximately $73,069,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Ulta Beauty by 87.3% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 337,882 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $130,380,000 after acquiring an additional 157,497 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.39% of the company’s stock.

Ulta Beauty Price Performance

ULTA stock opened at $418.23 on Friday. Ulta Beauty has a 52-week low of $318.17 and a 52-week high of $574.76. The company has a 50-day moving average of $402.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $384.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.28.

Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The specialty retailer reported $5.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.45 by $0.69. Ulta Beauty had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 51.95%. The company had revenue of $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.50 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $5.07 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Ulta Beauty will post 23.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Ulta Beauty

Ulta Beauty, Inc operates as a specialty beauty retailer in the United States. The company offers branded and private label beauty products, including cosmetics, fragrance, haircare, skincare, bath and body products, professional hair products, and salon styling tools through its Ulta Beauty stores, shop-in-shops, Ulta.com website, and its mobile applications.